Lesson of Life and Death
by Dragon's-Maidens
Summary: Mokuba looks back one night and discovers a horrible thing about his hamster, Isabelle. This fic is for my brother, in memory of his hamster. ONE SHOT


Lesson of Life and Death 

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Isabelle; she was my brother's.

A/N: I felt really bad for my little brother when we saw his hamster after two days of being quiet. Isabelle was silent and extremely thin and for some odd reason, it made me think of Mokuba and how naïve he is sometimes so I wrote this in memory of Isabelle, the white hamster.

Mokuba looked through his pictures in his homemade photo album and laughed. It was him and his hamster, Isabelle. He then looked at his said hamster and gasped. There she was, the cute hamster. Each step she took in her clean cage she shook as if in pain. "Isabelle? Izzy? You okay girl?" he asked as he picked up his pet gingerly. Isabelle was cold to the touch and shaking. He could feel her bones and muscles through her skin and fur. This began to frighten Mokuba as he wrapped his hands around the fragile creature to keep her warm and walked slowly to his brother's study. "Seto, something's wrong with Izzy," he said as he went to his brother's side.

Seto Kaiba, who was usually to busy for anything, swiveled his leather chair around and took a look at his little brother's beloved pet. Carefully taking her into his own hands, he watched her shake from the cold air. He frowned at her weight, her temperature and the puffy face. "Mokuba, she's dying," he said as he gave his little brother his pet back and put his hand on the boy's shoulder.

Mokuba's blue-gray eyes welled with tears and he looked from his weak hamster to his older brother. "Dying? Can't you help her, Seto?" he pleaded, not wanting to lose his pet.

The teenaged CEO closed his blue eyes and shook his head. "Sorry Mokuba, but this is part of life. Things are born, they live a little and then they die. That's all part of nature, there's no stopping death. It's inevitable," he replied to his scared little brother.

Mokuba didn't understand, if his stepbrother Noa could stay alive from death, then why couldn't his hamster. "But Noa lived. Our stepfather let Noa live after he died, why can't Izzy?" he asked looking at his old hamster.

Seto bit his bottom lip in thought. "Well, what he did was wrong but there's nothing you can do to save Izzy. Do you want her to live alone in a virtual world and be lost and confused? Besides, I think that she would be happier this way if you watched over her last minutes," Seto said looking back at the weak hamster.

He pet the hamster's back and felt her spine. Even though it made him sick, he had to help his little brother in anyway that he could.

Mokuba had always wanted a pet. He had saved his allowance and went to the pet store and bought the hyper white hamster. He went through the store with her crawling on his shoulders and hair picking out her needs, a water bottle and food. He also went to the extreme and bought playthings for her, a hamster ball, a tunneling system and several chew vitamins to keep her healthy. He loved his hamster dearly. It was his first and old pet and he wanted to have great days with her. He would walk through the mansion and watch Isabelle bump into walls and other things to move around.

Every day he feed and watered her three times a day and made sure that her cage was clean by cleaning it himself once a week. He played with her and took several pictures of her and him together. Isabelle would chew in her cage during the night, keeping Mokuba up until he got used to it. When Isabelle would escape, he would be frantically searching for her until he would find her curled up in a sock or walking along a wall in the hallway. She was his best friend and now he couldn't save her.

He held his hamster and slowly walked to his room again and sat next to her cage, too scared to put her in it, fearing that if he slept, he would squeeze her or she would die without looking up one last time and twitch her nose. He held the hamster close to his heart and tried to make enough body heat to spread to his pet but to no avail.

Seto watched his little brother from the doorway and looked around the room. It was no longer filled with toys but of a Play Station, an X-Box, a Game Cube and a TV. All of his DVDs were stacked neatly and set next to his VHS tapes and VCR. His little brother grew up with the hamster. It was like the hamster matured him and raised him to be a responsible boy, in a way that Seto never could.

Isabelle looked up at her master and twitched her nose and hid her face in Mokuba's hand, looking for a place to sleep. Mokuba's eyes dropped tears as he watched the back of his hamster rise and fall until it stopped. "Goodbye Isabelle, I love you girl," he choked and put her in her cage, right where she used to sleep.

Feeling two strong arms wrap themselves around him, Mokuba allowed himself to cry. He knew that he could do nothing and yet he felt incomplete now. Seto hugged his little brother and soothed him. "I'll get you another hamster," he promised but the little preteen in his arms shook his long raven-haired head.

Mokuba looked up and smiled weakly. "I don't want another hamster. I don't want anything else. Thanks though," he said before crying himself to sleep. Seto picked up his sleeping brother and set him in the bed. Covering him up, he thought of the things that the hamster did to get on his nerves: escape and worry Mokuba to death, pound on the walls in her hamster ball when he was trying to work, keep him up all night with the chewing and yet, he was going to miss the white hamster.

"Goodbye Isabelle, we'll miss you," those were the final words he said for the night and covered up the cage with a blanket and turned off the light before shutting the door.

A/N: I know that it's sad but I wrote this to help my little brother out so it is sad. Please review if you did like it.


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